Harvey Fierstein

Harvey Forbes Fierstein (/ˈfaɪərˌstiːn/ FIRE-steen; born June 6, 1954)[1] is an American actor, playwright, political commentator, and voice actor. He is best known for his theater work in Torch Song Trilogy[2] and Hairspray[3] and movie roles in Mrs. Doubtfire, Independence Day,[4] and as the voice of Yao in Mulan and Mulan II. Fierstein won two Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Play and Best Play for Torch Song Trilogy (about a gay drag-performer and his quest for true love and family). His third, the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical, was earned for the musical La Cage aux Folles and his fourth Tony Award,[5] the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical was earned for playing Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. Fierstein also wrote the book for the Tony Award-winning musical Kinky Boots, Newsies, and A Catered Affair. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2007.[6]

Harvey Fierstein
Fierstein at the 2009 Metropolitan Opera premiere
Born
Harvey Forbes Fierstein

(1954-06-06) June 6, 1954
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Occupation
  • Actor
  • playwright
  • political commentator
  • voice actor
Years active1983–present

For his role on the television show "Cheers," he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

Early and personal life

Fierstein was born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jacqueline Harriet (née Gilbert), a school librarian, and Irving Fierstein, a handkerchief manufacturer.[7] Fierstein was raised Jewish but as an adult is an atheist.[8]

Fierstein attended The High School of Art and Design, 1965 - 1969 and received a BFA from the Pratt Institute, 1969 - 1973. He began working in the theater as a founding member of The Gallery Players of Park Slope before being cast in Andy Warhol's only play, Pork.[9]

Fierstein's signature gravelly voice is a result of an overdeveloped vestibular fold in his vocal cords, essentially giving him a "double voice" when he speaks. Prior to puberty, Fierstein was a soprano in a professional boys' choir.[10]

Career

The gravel-voiced actor is best known for the play and film Torch Song Trilogy, which he wrote and starred in both Off-Broadway (with a young Matthew Broderick) and on Broadway (with Estelle Getty and Fisher Stevens). The 1982 Broadway production won him two Tony Awards, for Best Play and Best Actor in a Play, two Drama Desk Awards, for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Actor in a Play,[11] and the Theatre World Award, and the film adaptation earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination as Best Male Lead.[12]

Fierstein also wrote the book for La Cage aux Folles (1983), winning another Tony Award, this time for Best Book of a Musical, and a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Book. Legs Diamond, his 1988 collaboration with Peter Allen, was a critical and commercial failure, closing after 72 previews and 64 performances but the songs live on in Peter Allen's biographical musical, The Boy from Oz.

In 2007, Fierstein wrote the book to the musical A Catered Affair in which he also starred. After tryouts at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre in September 2007, it opened on Broadway April 17, 2008. The show received 12 Drama Desk Award nominations and won the Drama League Award for Distinguished Production of a Musical.[13]

Fierstein wrote the book for the stage musical Newsies, along with Alan Menken (music) and Jack Feldman (lyrics). The musical opened on Broadway in March 2012. Fierstein was nominated for the Tony Award for Book of a Musical.[14]

Fierstein wrote the book for a stage musical version of the film Kinky Boots with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper. After a fall 2012 run at the Bank of America Theatre in Chicago[15] it opened at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Broadway in April 2013. The musical was nominated for thirteen 2013 Tony Awards[16] and won six, including best musical.[17]

His play, Casa Valentina was produced on Broadway by the Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. The play opened in April 2014. It was directed by Joe Mantello, with a cast that featured Patrick Page as George/Valentina, John Cullum and Mare Winningham.[18]

In April 2016, Fierstein, along with his Kinky Boots collaborator Cyndi Lauper, was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[19]

In 2019 Fierstein wrote and starred in Bella Bella, a one-person play about New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug. It premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage One at City Center.

His other playwriting credits include Safe Sex, Spookhouse, and Forget Him.[20]

Fierstein wrote the teleplay for the December 3, 2015 NBC TV broadcast of The Wiz Live!, featuring Stephanie Mills, as Aunt Em, Queen Latifah as The Wiz and David Alan Grier as the Lion. The teleplay is an adaptation of The Wiz Broadway production which ran from October 1974 until January 1979.[21]

Fierstein then wrote the teleplay for, and starred in, the 2016 NBC TV broadcast of Hairspray Live! with Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, Kristin Chenoweth, and Martin Short.[22]

As one of the first openly gay celebrities in the United States, Fierstein helped make gay and lesbian life into viable subjects for contemporary drama "with no apologies and no climactic suicides".[23]

In addition to his theatrical work, Fierstein has authored op-eds for The New York Times,[24][25][26] HuffPost, and PBS.

Acting
Harvey Fierstein (left) with Anthony Rapp at the Annual Flea Market and Grand Auction hosted by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, September 2006

Fierstein made his acting debut at La MaMa, E.T.C. in Andy Warhol's only play, Pork. Fierstein continued to appear at La MaMa and other venues but also, having some aspirations to become a painter, enrolled at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from Pratt in 1973. Fierstein appeared three times in The Haunted Host by Robert Patrick: in Boston in 1975, at La MaMa, and then Off-Broadway in 1991. In addition to Torch Song Trilogy, La Cage aux Folles and A Catered Affair, Fierstein's Broadway acting credits include playing the mother, Edna Turnblad in Hairspray (2002), for which he won a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. He later replaced Alfred Molina as Tevye in the 2004 revival of Fiddler on the Roof.

Besides his leading role in the film version of Torch Song Trilogy co-starring Matthew Broderick and Anne Bancroft, Fierstein's film roles include Woody Allen's Bullets over Broadway and Merv Green in Death to Smoochy, in addition to parts in Garbo Talks, Duplex, Kull the Conqueror, and Independence Day. He narrated the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, for which he won a News & Documentary Emmy Award. He also voiced the role of Yao in Disney's animated feature Mulan, a role he later reprised for the video game Kingdom Hearts II and the direct-to-DVD sequel Mulan II.

In 1993 Harvey Fierstein co-starred with Mara Wilson, Lisa Jakub, Matthew Lawrence, Sally Field, and the late Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire.

On television, Fierstein was featured as the voice of Karl, Homer Simpson's assistant, in the "Simpson and Delilah" episode of "The Simpsons" and the voice of Elmer in the 1999 HBO special based on his children's book The Sissy Duckling, which won the Humanitas Prize for Children's Animation. In 1994, Fierstein became the first openly gay actor to play a principal gay character in a television series when he appeared as fashion designer Dennis Sinclair in the short-lived CBS series Daddy's Girls.[27] Additional credits include "Miami Vice," "Murder, She Wrote," the Showtime television movie Common Ground (which he also wrote), and "Cheers," which earned him an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He sang a tribute to Katie Couric on "Today" on May 31, 2006, her last day as anchor. He appeared as Heat Miser in the live-action remake of "The Year Without a Santa Claus" in December 2006. More recent television performances include an episode of "Family Guy," in which he played an overweight, chain-smoking mother and an episode of the second season of the series "Nurse Jackie" in which he played a man whose husband is dying. He also gave the voice-over for Lily in the Last Cigarette Ever episode of "How I Met Your Mother" when she gets a sore throat due to smoking.

Fierstein returned to the theatre when he reprised the role of Tevye, replacing an injured Chaim Topol, in the national tour of Fiddler on the Roof starting in December 2009.[28] On February 15, 2011, he replaced Douglas Hodge as Albin/Zaza in the Broadway revival of La Cage aux Folles playing opposite Jeffrey Tambor as Georges,[29] although days later Tambor pulled out, which the producers have stated was due to "complications from a recent hip surgery"; Christopher Sieber quickly replaced Tambor.[30] The show closed on May 1, 2011 after playing 433 performances and 15 previews.[31]

Fierstein wrote and starred in the solo monologue play Bella Bella, about Bella Abzug. The play opened Off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club City Center Stage 1 on October 1, 2019, directed by Kimberly Senior.[32]

Theatre credits
Year Title Role Venue Category
1982–1985 Torch Song Trilogy Arnold Beckoff Little Theatre Broadway
1986 Albery Theatre West End
1987 Safe Sex Ghee Lyceum Theatre Broadway
2002 Hairspray Edna Turnblad 5th Avenue Theatre Regional
2002-2004, 2008-2009 Neil Simon Theatre Broadway
2004–2006 Fiddler on the Roof Tevye Minskoff Theatre Broadway
2008 A Catered Affair Winston Walter Kerr Theatre
2010–2011 La Cage aux Folles Albin Longacre Theatre
2019 Bella Bella Bella Abzug Manhattan Theater Club off-Broadway

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
1984 Garbo Talks Bernie Whitlock
The Times of Harvey Milk Narrator Voice role
1988 Torch Song Trilogy Arnold Beckoff
1992 The Harvest Bob Lakin
1993 Mrs. Doubtfire Francis "Frank" Hillard
Bullets Over Broadway Sid Loomis
1995 Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde Yves DuBois
1996 The Celluloid Closet Himself Interview about LGBT movies
Independence Day Marty Gilbert
Everything Relative The Moyle
Elmo Saves Christmas Easter Bunny
1997 White Lies Art Hoarder
Kull the Conqueror Juba
Three Little Pigs The Big Bad Wolf Voice role (short film)
1998 Mulan Yao Voice role
Safe Men Leo
1999 Jump Dish Macense
2000 Playing Mona Lisa Bennett
Unreleased Kingdom of the Sun Huaca Voice role
2002 Death to Smoochy Merv Green
2003 Duplex Kenneth
2004 Mulan II Yao Voice role
2006 Farce of the Penguins Sheila Voice role
2012 Foodfight! Fat Cat Burglar Voice role
2014 Russian Broadway Shut Down Book Writer Short film
2017 Animal Crackers Esmerelda Voice role
2019 The Little Mermaid: An Immersive Live-to-Film Concert Experience Ursula Voice role
2020 Disarm Hate Narrator Voice role (documentary)

Television
Year Title Role Notes
1983 The Demon Murder Case Demon Voice role (television film)
1986 Miami Vice Benedict Episode: "The Fix"
Apology The Derelict Television film
1988 Tidy Endings Arthur Television film
1990 The Simpsons Karl Voice role (Episode: "Simpson and Delilah")
1991 ABC Afterschool Specials Andrew Episode: "In the Shadow of Love: A Teen AIDS Story"
1992 Cheers Mark Newberger Episode: "Rebecca's Lover... Not"
Murder, She Wrote Stan Hatter Episode: "The Dead File"
1994 Daddy's Girl Dennis Sinclair Series regular (3 episodes)
1997 The Larry Sanders Show Harvey Fierstein Episode: "The Matchmaker"
Fame L.A. Jeremy Pinter Episode: "Do or Die"
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child Mrs. Leaperman Voice role (Episode: "Thumbelina")
1998 Ellen Himself Episode: "It's a Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay World!"
Hercules Argus Panoptes Voice role (Episode: "Hercules and the Bacchanal")
Stories from My Childhood Grambo Voice role (Episode: "Alice and the Mystery of the Third Planet")
1999 Double Platinum Gary Millstein Television film
1999 The Sissy Duckling Elmer Voice role (television film)
2000 Common Ground Don Television film
Behind the Music Himself Episode: "1984"
2004 Biography Himself Episode: "John Waters"
2004–07 Sesame Street Himself Recurring role (3 episodes)
2006 The Year Without a Santa Claus Heat Miser Television film
2008 Family Guy Tracy Voice role (Episode: "The Former Life of Brian")
2009 How I Met Your Mother Lily's smoking voice (voice) Episode: "Last Cigarette Ever"
2010 Nurse Jackie John Decker Episode: "Monkey Bits"
2011 The Good Wife Judge Francis Flamm Episode: "Feeding the Rat"
2012 Submissions Only Auditioner #5 Episode: "Another Interruption"
2013 Smash Himself Episode: "The Fallout"
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen Himself Episode: "Harvey Fierstein & Kim Zolciak"
2014 Saturday Night Live! Himself Episode: "Bill Hader/Hozier"
2015 Family Guy Buster Keaton Voice role (Episode: "Stewie Is Enceinte")
The Wiz Live! — Television special (teleplay writer)
2016 Hairspray Live! Edna Turnblad Television special (also teleplay writer)
2017 BoJack Horseman iOvulate bracelet Voice role (Episode: "Commence Fracking")
2018-2020 Big Mouth Jerome Voice role (Episode: "Guy Town", "Horrority House")
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen Himself Episode: "Jane Curtin & Harvey Fierstein"
2019 The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance The Gourmand Recurring voice role (7 episodes)

Video games
Year Title Role Notes
1998 Disney's Animated Storybook: Mulan Yao
Mulan Story Studio
2005 Kingdom Hearts II English version
2007 Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+

Awards and nominations
Year Award Category Work Result
1982 New York Drama Critics' Circle Best American Play[33] Torch Song Trilogy Nominated
1983 Tony Award Best Play[34] Won
Best Actor in a Play[34] Won
Drama Desk Award Outstanding Play[34] Won
Outstanding Actor in a Play[34] Won
Theatre World Award Theatre World Award[34] Won
1984 Tony Award Best Book of a Musical[33] La Cage aux Folles Won
Drama Desk Award Outstanding Book of a Musical[33] Nominated
1992 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series [35] Cheers Nominated
2003 Tony Award Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical[36] Hairspray Won
Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actor in a Musical[36] Won
Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Actor in a Musical[37] Nominated
Drama League Award Outstanding Performance[38] Won
2008 Drama League Award Outstanding Production of a Musical[39] A Catered Affair Won
Drama Desk Award Outstanding Book of a Musical[33] Nominated
2012 Tony Award Best Book of a Musical[40] Newsies Nominated
Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Book of a Musical[41] Nominated
2013 Tony Award Best Book of a Musical[42] Kinky Boots Nominated
Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Book of a Musical[43] Nominated
2014 Tony Award Best Play[44] Casa Valentina Nominated

References
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  2. "Torch Song Trilogy", Wikipedia, 2020-12-13, retrieved 2021-01-26
  3. "Hairspray (musical)", Wikipedia, 2021-01-25, retrieved 2021-01-26
  4. "Independence Day (1996 film)", Wikipedia, 2021-01-25, retrieved 2021-01-26
  5. "Winners". www.tonyawards.com. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  6. "Hall of Fame: Theater veterans get a night in limelight". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. January 30, 2008. Retrieved March 9, 2014.
  7. "Harvey Fierstein Biography". filmreference. 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
  8. McKinley, Jesse (2005-01-02). "Fierstein As Tevye: Sounds Crazy, No?". The New York Times. pp. 2–5. I mean, I don't believe in God, I don't believe in heaven or hell, but I pray three or four times a day.
  9. "Harvey Fierstein". Concord Theatricals. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  10. Schlesinger, Richard (June 9, 2013). "Harvey Fierstein: No longer an activist". CBS News. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  11. "1983 Awards – Drama Desk". Retrieved 2021-01-26.
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  14. Healy, Patrick. "'Newsies' Run Is Now Open-Ended" The New York Times, (artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com), May 16, 2012.
  15. Jones, Kenneth. "Kinky Boots Musical Will Kick It Up in Chicago in October, Prior to Broadway". Archived 2013-11-03 at the Wayback Machine Playbill, February 22, 2012.
  16. Healy, Patrick. "'Kinky Boots' Leads With 13 Tony Nominations" The New York Times, (artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com), April 30, 2013.
  17. Healy, Patrick. "‘Kinky Boots’ Dances to the Top of the Tonys" The New York Times, June 10, 2013.
  18. Purcell, Carey. "Harvey Fierstein's 'Casa Valentina', Starring Patrick Page, Mare Winningham and Gabriel Ebert, Begins Broadway Performances April 1" Archived 2014-04-06 at the Wayback Machine Playbill, April 1, 2014.
  19. "Harvey Fierstein". Hollywood Walk of Fame. 2019-10-25. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  20. Contemporary gay American poets and playwrights : an A-to-Z guide. Nelson, Emmanuel S. (Emmanuel Sampath), 1954-. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. 2003. ISBN 0-313-32232-5. OCLC 51088166.CS1 maint: others (link)
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  30. Itzkoff, Dave. "Christopher Sieber Rushes to the Rescue of ‘La Cage’ on Broadway" The New York Times, March 1, 2011.
  31. Gans, Andrew."Broadway's 'La Cage aux Folles' Will Close May 1" Archived 2012-10-20 at the Wayback Machine Playbill, April 6, 2011.
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